There are a variety of particulate through the wash fabric treatment compositions available in the market. The objective of such products is to meet a consumer's desire for perfume bloom to occur during the wash or for delivering perfume to the articles that are washed or both. A common technical approach for delivering the desired benefit is to load a particulate carrier with perfume. The perfume can be one or both of encapsulated perfume and unencapsulated perfume. Carriers including water soluble polymers, salt, and sugar can be used as the carrier material.
Typically, marketers of through the wash fabric treatment compositions market a plurality of different scent variants. To help the consumer discern various scent variants from one another when she is purchasing the product, each variant can be provided with a different color of particulate. The color is typically provided by a dye. Marketers of such products tend to prefer bright colors to invoke fruity fresh scents and rich light colors to invoke sophisticated scents.
The supply chain for large scale manufacturers of particulate through the wash fabric treatment compositions to deliver product to the shelves of retailers can be lengthy. This can occur because of the distance between the production facility and the end retailer, which may be on different continents. Further, to limit the risk of not being able to meet retail demand at a particular time, one or more of the manufacturer, distributor, and retailer may maintain inventory that can be tapped to meet and absorb fluctuations in the demand for the product.
As the particulate through the wash fabric treatment composition moves through the supply chain, the product can be exposed to harsh environmental conditions. Potentially detrimental environmental conditions to which the product is exposed include heat and moisture. Commonly, products are shipped via a container on a truck, rail car, or boat. These containers can be stored in the sun in hot climates for long durations. Temperatures inside the container can exceed 50° C. and can occur for many days.
For fabric treatment compositions that include perfume, the consequence of high temperature in the supply chain can be problematic with respect to the perfume benefits of the particulate through the wash. The degradation of polymeric materials can increase the rate of decomposition of perfume raw materials, resulting in a change in scent intensity of the fabric treatment composition at one or more consumer touch points, such as neat product odor, wet fabric odor, or dry fabric odor. In addition, some perfume raw materials may be more sensitive than others to degradation, resulting in a change in the character of the fabric treatment composition.
With these limitations in mind, there is a continuing unaddressed need for particulate fabric treatment compositions that have satisfactory perfume stability from the time of manufacture to the time of purchase by a consumer.